Abe prepares for snap-election gamble

Tokyo

SPECULATION intensified on Wednesday that Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe will dissolve Parliament next week and call a snap election in mid-December, in a bid to secure a four-year mandate for his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) ahead of plans to push through contentious economic and political changes.

In the most explicit of a series of ground-preparing leaks this week to Japanese news media, Kyod…